Kotlin vs Java: What's the Difference?

In this tutorial of difference between Kotlin vs Java, we will discuss the key differences between Java vs Kotlin. But before discussing the Kotlin and Java difference, let’s first learn “What is Kotlin?” and “What is Java?”. Let’s start with Kotlin:

What is Kotlin?

Kotlin is an open-source programming language that can run on Java Virtual Machine (JVM). The language can run on numerous platforms.

It is a language that combines Object Oriented Programming (OOPs) and functional programming in an unrestricted, self - sufficient and distinctive platform.

In this tutorial, you will learn:

• What is Kotlin?
• What is Java?
• Features of Kotlin
• Features of Java
• History of Kotlin
• History of JAVA
• Difference between Kotlin and Java
• Advantage of Kotlin
• Advantages of Java
• Disadvantage of Kotlin
• Disadvantages of Java
• Which is Better?

What is Java?

Java is a multi-platform, object-oriented, and network-centric, programming language. It is among the most used programming language. It also used as a computing platform, and it was first released by Sun Microsystem in 1995. It was later acquired by Oracle Corporation.

Features of Kotlin

Here, are important features of Kotlin

• Offers Trimmed Coding
• Kotlin utilizes JVM, which combines the features of OOPs and functional-oriented programming.
• Offers fast compilation
• Kotlin can support a variety of extension functions without making any changes to the code
• You can write Kotlin code using IDE or using the command-line interface
• Smart feature casting helps you to cut down the application costs and improves its speed or performance.

Features of Java

Here are the important features of Java.

• Write code once and run it on almost any computing platform
• It is designed for building object-oriented applications.
• It is a multithreaded language that allows automatic memory management.
• Facilitates distributed computing as its network-centric.

History of Kotlin

Here, are important landmarks from the history of Kotlin:

• In 2016, Kotlin v1.0 was launched
• In 2017, Announcement of Google on the first-class support of Kotlin in Android
• In 2018, Kotlin v1.3 version released bringing coroutines for asynchronous programming.
• In 2019, Google announced Kotlin as its preferred programming language for Android application developers

History of JAVA

Here, are important landmarks from the history of Java language

• The Java language was initially called OAK. Originally, it was developed for handling portable devices and set-top boxes. Oak was a massive failure.
• In 1995, Sun changed the name to "Java" and modified the language to take advantage of the burgeoning www (World Wide Web) development business.
• Later in 2009, Oracle Corporation acquired Sun Microsystems and took ownership of three key Sun software assets: Java, MySQL, and Solaris.

Difference between Kotlin and Java

Here, are differences between Kotlin vs Java

Advantage of Kotlin

Here, are benefits/pros of Kotlin:

• Using the Kotlin Multiplatform framework, you can extract one common codebase that will target all of them at the same time
• Kotlin offers built-in null safety support, which is a lifesaver, especially on Android, which is full of old Java-style APIs.
• It's more concise and expressive than Java, which means there is less room for error.
• Offers user-friendly and understandable coding norms
• Divides large apps into smaller layers.
• Uses lots of function types and specialized language structures like lambda expressions.
• Helps developers to create extension functions
• Offers a very simple and almost automated way of creating data classes
• Kotlin is a statically-typed language, so it is very easy to read and write.
• This language allows the exchange and use of information from Java in various ways.
• It'll take less time to write new code in Kotlin.
• It's quite easier to deploy kotlin code and to maintain it at scale.

Advantages of Java

Here, are pros/benefits of Java

• Checked exceptions that improve error detecting and solving
• Detailed documentation is available.
• A large pool of skilled developers available
• A huge array of 3rd party libraries
• It allows you to form standard programs and reusable code.
• It is a multi-threaded environment that allows you to perform many tasks simultaneously in a program.
• Excellent performance
• Easy to navigate libraries

Disadvantage of Kotlin

Here, are cons/drawback of using Kotlin:

• Small community of developers, so it lacks learning materials and professional assistance.
• Java doesn't offer a function of checked exceptions that may lead to errors.
• Slower compilation speed than Java
• Kotlin, being a highly declarative language, sometimes it helps you to generate great amounts of boilerplate in corresponding JVM bytecode

Disadvantages of Java

Here, are cons/disadvantages of Java:

• Not very suitable for Android API design because of a number of limitations
• Demands a lot of manual work which increases the number of potential errors
• JIT compiler makes the program comparatively slow.
• Java has high memory and processing requirements.
• It does not provide support for low-level programming constructs like pointers.
• You don't have any control over garbage collection as Java does not offer functions like delete(), free().

Which is Better?

• When considering all the pitfalls of Java, especially the problem with NullPointerExceptions, Kotlin seems to be the better one among the two.
• Although Java is still an essential language for every android app development as the Android OS itself is based on the same.
• If you are looking to future proof your android app development services, then you should hire Kotlin developers for the same.